Heritage Open Days: Dame Agnes Hunt – Visionary Nurse

15th September 2018 at 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

From Shropshire to Tasmania and home again – the travels, tales and adventures of the extraordinary Dame Agnes Hunt.

As part of the Heritage Open Days festival, join us for a chat about her remarkable life and the founding of Derwen College in 1927. Served up with lashings of homemade cake!

Dame Agnes Hunt was indeed an Extraordinary Woman. In celebration of her life and work, join us to find out more about Agnes and have the chance to view some of Derwen College’s archives.

Early in her childhood Agnes developed a disability that left her in permanent pain. Despite this she travelled the world, including living in the bush in Tasmania, before returning to the UK to train as a nurse.

In 1900 she opened a convalescent home for ‘crippled’ children where she promoted the benefits of open-air treatments for disabled children. Agnes later went on to co-found the Orthopaedic Hospital in Gobowen, near Oswestry, treating older patients, soldiers and civilians injured in the First World War. Her pioneering work to rehabilitate injured and disabled patients established treatments still used today.

In 1927, at the age of 61, Dame Agnes founded the Derwen Training College, also in Gobowen, where physically disabled young people could learn a trade suitable to their disability and become partially or wholly self-supporting. Dame Agnes was an inspirational and truly amazing person who devoted her life to improving the lives of disabled men, women and children, never giving up on them or their cause.

Agnes’s legacy lives on 91 years later. Join us for a chat, refreshments and to look at the archives at ‘The Derwen’ – now The Orangery Restaurant at Derwen College.

We are happy to welcome students back from half-term break today. Back to work in our Horticulture, Hospitality & Housekeeping, Retail and Creative Arts pathways. For more details on our learning, work placements and qualifications visit our website at https://t.co/HWypTtm9tF

Thanks to Shropshire Star for supporting our 52nd sponsored walk which takes place on 31st March, starting at 11am. Sign up today to walk or run in this popular community event to help raise funds for college facilities and activities. Read more at bit.ly/2GS5XvR ... See MoreSee Less

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Derwen College, Oswestry,
Shropshire SY11 3JA

t: 01691 661234
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Derwen College is a Registered Charity No. 1153280
and Registered in England and Wales as a Limited Company No. 8615826.